1000+ Head-Fier

I hate to be an iconoclast, but after playing around with the grill mod on my HE6, I wasn't able to get an acceptable balance with the stock and Focus pads.
Initially I was impressed with the increased bass and presence/detail - but longer term, to my ears, this comes at the expense of top to bottom balance.
Stock velours were too bright and focus pad seemed to drain life out of the music.
During my experiments I kept referring back to my HD600's as a benchmark - the grill modded HE6 just didn't sound right to me - I kept thinking, these just aren't killing the HD600 as usually happens.
Maybe the Vegan pads would magically transform the sound, but frankly I'm not encouraged enough to try them.

I put back the stock grills/padding with stock velour pads......and breathed a sigh of relief.

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Vegan pads transforms the sound the most of all the mods I have tried. The Vegan gives me much better image, blacker background, better and much fuller bass and last but not least lower high treble. In other word better and more organic sound. Second IMO is ohhgourami’s felt mod on the inside of the vegan pads. Made the bass a bit fuller and the overall sound more refined, especially the upper mids/lower treble. Then you have done those, then a re-grilling will provide a bit more open sound to ice the cake.

Headphoneus Supremus

I hate to be an iconoclast, but after playing around with the grill mod on my HE6, I wasn't able to get an acceptable balance with the stock and Focus pads.
Initially I was impressed with the increased bass and presence/detail - but longer term, to my ears, this comes at the expense of top to bottom balance.
Stock velours were too bright and focus pad seemed to drain life out of the music.
During my experiments I kept referring back to my HD600's as a benchmark - the grill modded HE6 just didn't sound right to me - I kept thinking, these just aren't killing the HD600 as usually happens.
Maybe the Vegan pads would magically transform the sound, but frankly I'm not encouraged enough to try them.

I put back the stock grills/padding with stock velour pads......and breathed a sigh of relief.

Click to expand...

The point I was trying to make was you don't need to heavy mod or mod the HE-6. So um...glad you prefer the stock sound, it reenforces what I was trying to say.

As far as the vegan pads, they don't "magically transform " anything. What they do offer is a bit more bass, a bit more distance from your ear to aid in seperation and fantastic distribution of the weight of the 6.

500+ Head-Fier

The point I was trying to make was you don't need to heavy mod or mod the HE-6. So um...glad you prefer the stock sound, it reenforces what I was trying to say.

As far as the vegan pads, they don't "magically transform " anything. What they do offer is a bit more bass, a bit more distance from your ear to aid in seperation and fantastic distribution of the weight of the 6.

Headphoneus Supremus

Thanks. I am open to all opinions and appreciate it. Not sure my wallet is open to $4k though! I did look at the manual and wonder if the power out is different with SE input vs balanced? Are you running balanced in and is there a difference?

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Pioneer Spec and Pioneer SX-1050 gave incredible results. Paid $400 for the SX and quite a bit less for the Spec system...............though expect $2k for the Spec 1/2 combo (which should be used together). This was out of the speaker taps...............

The point I was trying to make was you don't need to heavy mod or mod the HE-6. So um...glad you prefer the stock sound, it reenforces what I was trying to say.

As far as the vegan pads, they don't "magically transform " anything. What they do offer is a bit more bass, a bit more distance from your ear to aid in seperation and fantastic distribution of the weight of the 6.

Click to expand...

Well that's good to hear

I guess I get swept away with how much you guys like to Mod the Hifiman Headphones, though I'll most likely get some wood Cups made for them anyways an maybe to a 4pin XLR build into the Cup

1000+ Head-Fier

Pioneer Spec and Pioneer SX-1050 gave incredible results. Paid $400 for the SX and quite a bit less for the Spec system...............though expect $2k for the Spec 1/2 combo (which should be used together). This was out of the speaker taps...............

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Thanks, Oregonian, I'd like to hear some of those vintage setups. I do think the He-6s sound great from the speaker taps of my Odyssey Stratos, but I haven't pulled it out to try it without the preamp, straight from the Mojo. I still also think the Liquid Carbon is giving me 95% of what the Stratos is, with only slightly less bloom/fullness at both ends, but I'm still getting the measure of both the headphones and this amp. I may have to go further vintage back and try some tube amps. I spent too much time in the 70s listening to distortion from receivers (not of the Pioneer's quality) and I may be a bit biased against going that route. But again, I would like to hear a good sample of what they can do.

100+ Head-Fier

Vegan pads transforms the sound the most of all the mods I have tried. The Vegan gives me much better image, blacker background, better and much fuller bass and last but not least lower high treble. In other word better and more organic sound. Second IMO is ohhgourami’s felt mod on the inside of the vegan pads. Made the bass a bit fuller and the overall sound more refined, especially the upper mids/lower treble. Then you have done those, then a re-grilling will provide a bit more open sound to ice the cake.

The point I was trying to make was you don't need to heavy mod or mod the HE-6. So um...glad you prefer the stock sound, it reenforces what I was trying to say.

As far as the vegan pads, they don't "magically transform " anything. What they do offer is a bit more bass, a bit more distance from your ear to aid in seperation and fantastic distribution of the weight of the 6.

Click to expand...

I guess it's all subjective.

It seems to me that the grill mod and Vegan pad mod are somewhat circular in effect - i.e. they counteract some of the negative effects introduced by the other.
Without having a stock headphone for comparison while doing these mods it can be hard to keep track of a point of reference.
It's interesting to go back and read David Mahler's appraisal of the stock HE6 in his epic Battle of the flagships post. Performs decently against an impressive list, so not too bad after all.

Headphoneus Supremus

It seems to me that the grill mod and Vegan pad mod are somewhat circular in effect - i.e. they counteract some of the negative effects introduced by the other.
Without having a stock headphone for comparison while doing these mods it can be hard to keep track of a point of reference.
It's interesting to go back and read David Maher's appraisal of the stock HE6 in his epic Battle of the flagships post. Performs decently against an impressive list, so not too bad after all.

Click to expand...

Ugh my poor wallet.. who knows maybe I'll just bit the Bullet an save up for the M11 an the HE 6

Oh hey wasn't there a Loaner Library back in the day? Does that place still exist

Or... I could do the NFB28, it's around 8w Into 40 Ohms, that might be JUST enough to really drive the HE 6, an total cost of owner ship at that point is pretty cheap

1000+ Head-Fier

It seems to me that the grill mod and Vegan pad mod are somewhat circular in effect - i.e. they counteract some of the negative effects introduced by the other.
Without having a stock headphone for comparison while doing these mods it can be hard to keep track of a point of reference.
It's interesting to go back and read David Maher's appraisal of the stock HE6 in his epic Battle of the flagships post. Performs decently against an impressive list, so not too bad after all.

Click to expand...

Yes absolutely it’s all subjective and I believe that the mods then done together made very good synergy for my liking. Especially now with also ohhgourami’s felt mod. I guess we want the sound to be a bit different and therefore not surprising if some people prefer stock sound while others prefer mods that leads to a bit different type of sound signatures.

I consider that the change with vegan pads there pretty obvious as it changed the tonal balance quite a bit. The change to vegan from focus pads was not better on all aspect IMO. At first I even though the vegans sounded a bit muddy. The Focus pads has bigger sound stage and a bit clearer sound. With the new grill I think I got closer to the focus pads in those regards but probable not all the way.